Judges in ´bribes for rulings´ scandal refuse to submit signatures

Santo Domingo.- Former SuperiorJudicial Council judge Francisco Arias and suspended judge Awilda Reyes wen separatelyto the National Forensics Institute (Inacif) without their lawyers on Tuesday,but refused to provide their signatures.

Their signatures arerequired to determine whether they put their names on a receipt for the returnof an alleged bribe.

The receipt allegedlyproves that Reyes returned 350,000 pesos to Arias, who gave it to her in exchangefor the release of Pedro Brand city councilman Erinson of Santos, indicted on contractkillings, according to statements b Supreme Court chief justice Mariano Germán.

The Superior JudicialCouncil had suspended Reyes in the heels of her ruling ordering the return ofan aircraft to executives of the failed Peravia Bank and around US$20 millionin the case of the construction company said to own the Torre Atiemar, linkedto drug trafficker Arturo del Tiempo, who´s serving time in Spain.